Page 140 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

* PERSIAN GULP ADMINISTRATION REPORT

or 18 rapidly being, spent, and little show of order has resulted, even, te^
rarily, and there docs not appear to have been any return on tho money gJJ0'
•which, would encourage one to look forward with anv hope for tho future. t?*
country has becomo more heavily involved in debt, has pledged her rcsour^
and there are no increased revenues resulting to pay past obligations in n*
form of interest, much loss repayment of capital, or to meet tho futuro needs11?
tho administration. of
During tho year, a joint advance of £4.00,000 was provided by Russia aD(i
Great Britain. Of tho latter's share, a sum of £30,000 was set aside for th
administration of the province of Pars aud £10,000 for tho construction 0f 8
now Customs House at Bushire. a
A further advance of £100,000 wa9 made by Great Britain expressly for
expenditure on the Gendarmerie of Fare.
Tho entire reconstruction of Persian finance and tho project of a large
loan, from which present obligations arc to ho met, under the control of a
European Commission liavo been discussed^ but Ecrsia bus practically no sccuiitj
to offer. ;
Considerable reductions in the small numbers of British troops in southern
Persia have been effected, and the strength of the British Indian troops on
Persian soil hardly amounts to a strong half battalion, but no appreciable
reduction has followed of Russian troops in the North.
The negotiations with the Porte for a settlement of our conflicting interests
in the Persian Gulf have at length crys­
Tbc Apglo-Turlu.h negotiation*.
tallised into the form of “The Anglo-
Turkish Convention ” which was signed at London,- on July S9lh. The Rati­
fication, which was to have taken place th-ee months after the signature of the
Convention, was postponed until December 29th, hut, at the close of the year
under report, the Convention had not been ratified.
This project has remained in the discussion stage, and it can hardly be
said that the negotiations even have ad­
Trana-Penilan Railway.
vanced materially. At tho close of the
year, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for .Foreign Affairs was for­
warding. to. His. Majesty’s Embassy at St. Petersburgh a despatch containing
a further expression of tho view's of His Majesty’s Government on the difficul­
ties experienced in regard to—

(*) method of presenting to the Persian Government the request for an
option of the railway projected,
(if) the port where tho main line or branches of the Trans-Persian
Railway may reach the coast.

The very important question of alignment from Tehran onwards was still
os unsettled as ever.
German activity shows no loss of vitality. This year pressure has been
heaviest in Arabistan where German
Otraura ftotlrlty la the Persian Quit
steamers have competed on the Karun
with Messrs. Lynch Brothers. It was also reported that they intended^
compete in forwardings along the Ahwaz-Ispahan road. They have continue®
their efforts to take freight from British Steamer Lines, notably in the sug**
and wheat trades.
The Commission under Admiral Blade arrived in the Gulf in Novembj*
Its object was to ascertain the desirability
81*da Commluioa.
from the Admiralty point of view, ,
contracting with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company for a supply of oil for ,
-purposes, and to visit certain other localities in which it was oxpcctod to u
oil. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company's "Works and Oil Fields in Ara^6
were visited, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, Kisbm and Bandar Abbas;
were despatched inland from Lighali and Bandar Abbas to examine
where oil was known to exist.